Iran Marks Embassy Takeover

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Thousands of Iranians chanting "Death to America" marched to the former U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran today to mark its takeover by radical students nine years ago, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

It said the demonstrators burned a U.S. flag and an effigy of Uncle Sam at the embassy, dubbed a "den of spies" by Iran's spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Pieces of an Iranian airliner shot down by a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf on July 3, killing all 290 aboard, were displayed at the rally, the agency said.